CALENDS

Etymology

Noun

calends pl (plural only)

Often with initial capital: the first day of a month

Synonyms: Kal., first calends (rare)

(historical, Ancient Rome) the first day of a month of the Roman calendar.

(by extension) A day for settling debts and other accounts.

(by extension, biblical, Judaism, obsolete) synonym of Rosh Hodesh

(rare) synonym of calendar; (figuratively) an account, a record.

(figuratively, obsolete) The first day of something; a beginning.

Usage notes

English use of the Roman calendrical term always employs the Romans’ inclusive dating, including the calends itself when counting. Thus, the “third day before the calends of January” (a.d. iii Kal. Ian.) is 30 December: two days before 1 January, not three.

English usage also often follows the Latin contraction of the phrasing, which omits the words ante diem. The 30th of December may appear as the “third calends of January” or the “third of the calends of January”. Thus, the “second calends” (pridie kalendas) of a month is the last day of the month before it; the “third calends” (tertia kalendas) is the day before that; and so on. Because Julius Caesar did not want to move the religious holidays set by nones and ides of the months, he inserted all the additional days of his calendar reform in various places before the calends of the months. The Roman leap day was similarly intercalated as a “second sixth calends” on 25 February in order to avoid affecting the existing holidays of that month.

The variant spelling kalends is more common in modern classical scholarship, reflecting the Roman preference for that spelling.

Coordinate terms

• ides

• nones

Noun

calends

(obsolete, rare) plural of calend

Anagrams

• candles, slanced

Source: Wiktionary

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Cal"ends, n. pl. Etym: [OE. kalendes month, calends, AS. calend month, fr. L. calendae; akin to calare to call, proclaim, Gr. Claim.]

Definition: The first day of each month in the ancient Roman calendar. [Written also kalends.] The Greek calends, a time that will never come, as the Greeks had no calends.

Source: Webster’s Unabridged Dictionary 1913 Edition

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